How to Transfer Your Data to a New Aluminum MacBook

Since the new Macbooks don’t offer a firewire port, you’ll need to use a network connection to transfer your data from an old Mac to your new Macbook.

Apple has made the process very simple though: the first time you boot up your new machine, you’ll be asked to pick another Mac on your network. I usually connect to my network via wireless LAN, which is a bit slow for large amounts of data, so I just connected my old and new Macbook via an ethernet cable.

The migration assistent will then check to see whether a compatible version of Migration assistent is installed on your old Mac. If not, you can install it off the DVDs that come with the new Macbook. To prevent unauthorized data access over the network, you’ll then need to enter a 4 digit code on your old Mac and your data migration will start. That’s it!

This process was very quick and painless using Firewire and I was sceptical whether Apple would be able to make it just as easy over a network connection – but it’s very straightforward.